Archive for July, 2013

This week, we rescued 3,000 hens from a California “egg laying” hen farm. The hens arrived with severely overgrown toe-nails. All had been de-beaked, in which a portion of their beak is cut off without pain relief. Read more about the rescue.

Black Beauty Eggplant – Slices work well on the grill, brushed with olive oil and basil. Or try the babaganoush recipe below.

Lemon Cucumbers

Green Cucumbers

Romaine or Butterhead Lettuce

Yellow Summer Squash

Dark Green Zucchini

Yukon Gold Potatoes – that may be it for Yukons. You’ll get a new variety next week.

Varna Leeks – that’s all she wrote. Red onions are up for next week.

Mixed beets

Basil

What’s happening on the farm:

Walla Walla is just about the best name for an onion! We harvested many wheelbarrows full of Walla Walla’s and yellow Cortland onions, which are now drying in the shade. We are using fence panels as table tops to allow maximum air circulation as the outer layers form a papery, protective skin. In about 2 weeks, we’ll cut off the green onion tops, and give them a couple more days to further dry out. We look forward to divvying out your shares over the remainder of the season!

Ingredients

1 large eggplant, about 1 1/2 pounds

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

2 cloves garlic (or to taste)

1/4 cup lemon juice (or to taste)

1 tablespoon tahini (or to taste)

ground cumin

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 F (or better yet, do this on your barbecue grill!) With a fork, punch a bunch of holes in the eggplant and place it on a baking dish or sheet. Cook for about 45 minutes, until the eggplant is all sunken in. Remove from the heat and let it cool until you can peel it safely. Peel and put it in a food processor. Add the salt, garlic, lemon juice, and tahini, and process until it’s smooth. Serve sprinkled with cumin and surrounded by the vegetables of your choice.

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Want more vegan recipes? Sign up for Sanctuary Sweets! Each week Animal Place will email you a vegan breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert recipe to help you eat with kindness!

What’s inside:

Purple Beans – for real this time. Can be eaten raw, but it’s fun to watch them slowly turn green when cooked. Recipe below.

Lemon Cucumbers – wondering about the black prickly nubs on the skin? They can be easily rubbed off with your hands, and rather unnoticeable when eaten.

Butterhead or Green Leaf Lettuce

Green Cucumbers

Yellow Summer Squash

Dark Green Zucchini

Fennel

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Varna Leeks

Mixed beets

Pink Beauty Radishes

Parsley

What’s happening on the farm:

We’ve struggled with extreme heat and some persistent, pesky insects in our greens this spring and summer. We have said farewell to many of these crops, which are now being decomposed on the compost heap. We have just recently planted more chard and kale for the autumn season. We are also going to try again for more broccoli and green cabbage.

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Did you know that folks can get paid to visit Animal Place? A private foundation awarded Animal Place a $5,000 grant to encourage the public to meet animals like Lucille, a piglet saved from slaughter. Every new visitor who attends a guided tour at our Grass Valley sanctuary will receive $5 at the end of the tour. We believe our tours will profoundly alter the way farmed animals are perceived. Please share this link widely!

Tours are offered daily Wednesday through Friday at 11:30 am and two tours on Saturday (unless another event is scheduled) at 10:30 am and 12:00 pm. You must register for the tour in order to attend!

What’s inside:

Romanesco – a fractal-like variety of cauliflower. It can be eaten raw or steamed. Try it with a little bit of tahini-soy sauce-lemon drizzle, or check out the quinoa recipe below.

Memento Red Cabbage – Farmer Andy calls these teeny tiny cabbages a “memento”. They never really headed up to normal size because of the extreme heat, but we still wanted to give you a memento!

Lemon Cucumbers – these are so crisp and fresh that they can be eaten like an apple. Salads and juices, too.

Green Cucumbers

Butterhead Lettuce – this variety has extremely tender leaves that are red-tinged on the outside.

Basil – pesto can be used on any veggie dish, including the recipe below!

What’s happening on the farm:

We are at the peak of the heat and harvest season. This is a beautiful time to visit the farm! We have removed massive amounts of biomass, basically leftover plant parts, from what was the broccoli, romanesco, cabbage and cauliflower, which never formed a head due to the weather extremes this season. That means our veganic compost pile is growing! We have also planted some more late season crops. This will be our first time to grow celery, and look forward to sharing it with you in a few months!

Boil pasta according to instructions. Drain pasta and set aside, (covered to keep warm-add a few drops olive oil to the drained pasta if you are afraid it will stick).

In a medium saucepan, add grape seed oil and garlic, then add onions, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini and romanesco. Mix together and add basil, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Sautee for a few minutes, until onion is translucent.

In a mixing bowl, mix vegetable mixture into pasta.

Add pesto and mix in.

Add in tomatoes.

Serve immediately and add nutritional yeast as a topping for a cheesy flavor.

Enjoy!

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More than a 100 visitors braved the heat to celebrate Animal Place’s 24th birthday last Saturday. Folks enjoyed tossing donated watermelons and cantaloupes to the pigs! Thanks to the CSA members who came out, and bought even more yummy produce! Folks on Facebook can check out the pics here.

What’s inside:

Dark Green Cucumbers – check out the recipe below.

Yellow Summer Squash – substitute squash for the carrot in the recipe below.

Yukon Gold Potatoes – this tater is a real crowd pleaser, with yellow skin and yellow insides. Great for mashing, frying, baking and roasting.

Varna Leeks – this variety can be eaten raw in salad, or substitute this for onions in any recipe.

Rainbow Chard – still going strong. We’ve been tasting for bitterness, and please that it has held up to the heat. Please do let us know if it starts to taste bitter to you.

Collard Greens – It’s sturdy, and can be used as a wrap. Cut out any thick stems.

Mixed beets – chioggia, golden and red beets

Pink Beauty Radishes – remember these from springtime? We grew some more for you. Enjoy!

Parsley – add it to almost anything, including the recipe below.

What’s happening on the farm: potatoes 101

The first potato harvest is always an exciting time. We began preparing for this day way back in early April, when we allowed some “chitting” time for our seed potatoes; that is, a warm place for them to start sprouting their potato eyes. Next we cut up our seed piece potatoes into 2 oz chunks (to get more potato for your buck). After the exposed flesh calloused over, we staggered our planting dates to maximize the length of our overall potato harvest season.

As the seedlings grew above the soil, we “hilled up” the beds by throwing more soil around the stems. This blocked out the light and gave more soil for the potatoes (which are swollen stems) to grow. Finally, we added a thick layer of grass mulch, kept them irrigated, and waited.

Just recently, we noticed that the Yukon Gold stems and leaves were starting to turn brown and fall over: that’s our cue to cut the irrigation water and let the skins harden up for at least a week before digging them up. Oila! Potatoes!

This is a quick and easy side you can put together and eat right away or tuck them away for a day or two in the fridge. I made a quick soy sauce & vinegar dip which was great, but what would really make this amazing would be the (Sorta) Spicy Peanut Sauce. I also used a cheese slicer to cut the vegetables (I’m not sure why that was in my kitchen). You could also use a mandolin slicer or just go for it with a knife.

The dip was:

1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce

1/2 Teaspoon of Rice Vinegar

Ingredients

2 Cucumbers

1 Carrot

1/2 Block of Tofu

1 Teaspoon Oil

Garlic Powder to taste

Toothpicks

Method

Step 1

Drain, pat dry, and cut the tofu into small, thin rectangles. Slice the carrots into the same shape. Finally, slice the cucumber into long strips.

Step 2

Add the oil, tofu, and garlic powder to a frying pan and saute until both sides are golden brown.

Step 3

Stack a few pieces of tofu, sandwiched between two carrot pieces, and roll it up in a slice of cucumber. Use a toothpick to pin the roll together.

Dark Green Zucchini – the summer season truly begins with these beauties! Check out the recipe below.

Varna Leeks – this variety can be eaten raw in salad, or substitute this for onions in any recipe. Leeks need a little special washing, as gritty soil can be caught between layers. Check out this post for tips on cleaning leeks.

Kohlrabi – that’s the last of the space invaders veggie for this season. Be sure to peel off the tough skin. If you’re unsure of what to do with them, simply grate them over a salad or in a cole slaw. The flavor is mild and nutty, almost like broccoli.

Dino Kale or Ripbor Kale – the kale has suffered some intense insect pressure. We harvested the best of it for you, but there may still be some noticeable damage. Still perfectly edible!

Collard Greens – It’s sturdy, and can be used as a wrap. Cut out any thick stems.

Carrots – that’s it for carrots until the fall, folks! Hope you enjoyed them.

Fresh parsley – add it to salad, tabouli or any juice. Very alkaline food!

Fresh basil – eat raw, cooked or make pesto!

What’s happening on the farm:

Stay tuned for details about our field stand, which will be open to sanctuary visitors and any passerbys in Grass Valley. In fact, we hope to draw more visitation to the sanctuary through our fresh veggies.

Instructions

Set aside one of the zucchini; trim and coarsely chop the rest.

Cook onion in a large saucepan for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Stir in the chopped zucchini, salt, and pepper and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the broth and simmer until zucchini is tender, about 15 minutes.

Pour into a blender (in 2 batches, if necessary) taking care to avoid burns by not filling the blender more than halfway. Add the basil, cashews, and nutritional yeast and blend until smooth.

Return soup to the pot, season with salt and pepper to taste, and keep warm. Shred the remaining zucchini with a spiral slicer, mandolin, or grater. Pour soup into bowls and sprinkle grated zucchini over top.